Like anyone, I claim to have a soft spot for animals. I don’t grow overly sentimental in films where humans are the ones enduring despair, but seeing a dog in a scene where its life is stripped puts me over the emotional brink. Humans tend to have this innate disdain for watching an innocent being completely relinquished of its control and placed in the fate of humans, especially for the worse. The first example that comes to mind for me is the scene in “I am Legend” where Will Smith has to kill his dog after he understands he has contracted the insidious ailment. Furthermore, growing up in California where we have one of the best zoos in the world (The San Diego Zoo) and two tremendous aquatic centers (Monterey Bay Aquarium and SeaWorld), I can’t help but wonder if we are doing these animals a favor by bringing them out of their unpredictable, predator-laden environment, or if we are introducing their cataclysmic exodus.
I will refrain from expatiating on the recent Cincinnati gorilla incident - rather I choose to focus on zoos holistically. Generally speaking, there are two chains of thought when it comes to the ethicality of domesticating wild animals. The first is that it is truly an unethical concept. Should animals not have the same emancipation that us humans are blessed with? The argument here is that we are taking them from their homelands simply for entertaining the feeble minded. Animals were meant to live and thrive in their natural habitat, allowing nature to take its course as it has since the dawn of time. These beautiful animals shouldn't have to put up with gawking kids on their elementary school field trips, squandering their ability to assert their dominance in the wild as hunters and reproducers. Some will even argue that such an ailment as "zoochosis," a disease where animals suffer from depression and lonelinessis, all too prevalent in animals - to the point where some zoos prescribe their animals mind-altering drugs like Prozac to combat their illness.
On the other hand, there are many who feel that zoos are truly beneficial in ways other than for the economy. Zoos are no longer just a menagerie brought into place for the entertainment and education of vacationers or those intrigued by exotic animals. Rather, it is a way that we can preserve certain species, allow them to reproduce and learn more about each animal so that we can ensure longevity in captivity and that they outflourish their predecessors. One can even argue that, granted the zookeepers are truly passionate about ensuring the well being of the animals take precedence over working the zoo for the money, they can be even happier in a zoo setting. Animals are very habitual and ritualistic in their ways. If they know that food is coming at a certain time of day, that their enclosure will be cleaned every so often and there there will be no unwanted intrusion, happiness is rather common. For those that argue about the number of times animals have escaped from a zoo due to hating their reclusive confinement, the rate at which the animals choose to return to the zoo is quite high. With the current global threats posed to all species, especially those nearing the verge of extinction, there has to be some sort of human intervention after all of the negative effects humans have had in past centuries through hunting and fur trading.
The sad truth is that not every zoo puts the well being of their animals at the forefront as they should. I personally do not believe that zoos, in accordance with proper ethical practices enacted towards the animals of a zoo, are inhumane. While we do not always know what is going on behind closed doors at each zoo and aquatic center, proctoring has become more severe in terms of determining whether or not a menagerie is being managed with paramount emphasis on the welfare of the animals. When you have animals treated cruelly, as the killer whales of SeaWorld were, vigilantes and activists are doing a phenomenal job cracking down on animals that are dealt with and captivated unethically.
